Slashdot Mirror
Utah Attorney General Tweets Execution Order
Kilrah_il writes "In an all-time low for Internet use, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff used Twitter to announce to the public his approval of the execution of convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner. 'I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution. May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims,' the attorney general wrote. The AG's 7,000 followers retweeted the message further on and soon many replied concerning the awfulness of tweeting the execution of a human being. 'Mr. Shurtleff was doing nothing unusual; politicians and news organizations now routinely send out tweets to alert people to the latest developments. But as Twitter users digested endless breaking news flashes alerting them to the death of a man by firing squad in the United States, for some Mr. Shurtleff's remarks stood out from the rest.'"
The Utah AG was 'tweeting' while the murder was 'twitching'? This case received a lot of publicity (as most executions do) and he was just spreading the news as it happened. He's now qualified to work for one of the big networks.
Pretty soon we will have the pleasure of seeing the president communicating in a similar fashion when starting another (pointless) war.
Follow their AG on twitter in order to stay in touch with their government, but they don't want to hear the icky stuff? Is that right?
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
This is a good thing, regardless of your stance on capital punishment.
The most important aspect of the internet, in my opinion, is that it shoves transparency down the throat of government.
For better or worse, this Governor's name and decision is now tied irrevocably to his decision to sign the execution order. He is accountable and his constituents and other voters around the country know what he did.
This is as it should be.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Generic outrage.
Tweeting a legal and properly appealed capital conviction is the "all-time low for internet use", but I suppose that using the internet to distribute Jihad snuff films like Daniel Pearl or using the internet to recruit racial and religious hate is just fine.
Live a decent life, maybe you can die with dignity. Murder people, and someone may tweet your death. What's the problem?
quick! Get this guy a talk show deal!
nonexistent sig
Any Last Words?
There are many lows on the internet and this doesn't come close. The prosecution in this case chose to pursue the death penalty in light of the crime committed, the jury found him guilty and found the death penalty appropriate. The AG is doing his job, and while this might seem sensationalistic, I'd rather the officials in my particular state be as open as possible using all available avenues of communication, although I personally do not use twitter.
The primary reason this case is so sensational is that he was killed by a firing squad. Remember that he chose that particular method, not the state.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
Firing squad is deemed inhumane in 49 out of 50 states, the exception being Oklahoma, where it is used solely as a backup, should lethal injection or electrocution fail or become unconstitutional. Utah allows firing squads only in cases where the prisoner had chose it before it became unconstitutional. Therefore, Gardner, having been on death row for 20 some odd years, had chose death by firing squad before it was deemed inhumane.
I realize this is OT, but it really struck me as odd that Utah was still doing a death by firing squad. Interestingly enough, Washington State still allows prisoners the choice of their method of execution between death by hanging and death by lethal injection.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
Who was/were the victim(s) of this convicted murderer anyway? Buehler? Anyone? Not that they matter one bit.
What a ballsy way to openly admit that you want to murder someone.
The most important aspect of the internet, in my opinion, is that it shoves transparency down the throat of government.
Your statement implies he was forced by some law to announce this over the internet. He chose to announce this, rather than being forced to. I agree that transparency is a great thing in government, but we should also be willing to acknowledge when those working in the government choose transparency and give them credit for doing so.
He is accountable and his constituents and other voters around the country know what he did.
Yes indeed, and this is as it should be - if you are for capital punishment, it is desirable to have executions announced because part of the point of them (besides removing someone truly irredeemable from the world) is deterrence. How can an act deter that no-one knows anything about?
Although frankly, I don't think announcing something over the internet really ties an action to anyone any more than public records already did. If you wanted to know who had signed off on executions before it was easy enough to look up.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Well, at least he didn't order the execution through twitter. Just imagine if that account got comprised, or any account involved in stupid shit like that.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Big deal....so he's just informing the majority of people that don't rely on the drive by media for news. No big deal....the dirtbag lived longer than he should have, and, at least (according to the reports) he lived for a few seconds after the execution and had to THINK about spending eternity in HELL!
May God grant him mercy...because we certainly won't.
And Americans wonder why the rest of the civilized world looks at them and shakes their head in disbelief.
THE GOVERNOR TWEETS AN EXECUTION HE ORDERED.
I don't know what's more appalling, that he did it, or that no-one seems terribly surprised.
Three Squirrels
With an 8ft rope and an oak tree? Ronnie Lee Gardner was a worthless piece of shit and the world is a better place without him. Frankly, I think he should have been strung up publicly at noon.......with free ice cold Coca-Colas.
I can't tell if you're being a troll, a classless buffoon, or a shill for Coca-Cola. Tricky decision.
Did they Tweet what he got for his last meal?
Beware of the Leopard.
He didnt tweet the execution order, ie tell them to do it.
He tweeted about his approval of the actions taken.
IE, an opinion.
Tweeting about it wasn't enough. The damned thing should have been broadcast live.
The asshole being executed was shown *far* more mercy than he showed his victims.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Not a troll, just curious why this is so hard?
For example, the whole propfol thing with the death of that pop singer last year seems to have turned up all kinds of info on how that drug is abused... so a) it is not unpleasant, b) can kill you if you overdose.
Seems to me a perfectly humane death sentence prescription, no?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I don't get it. It's a document of what happened. Either the original intent of the execution is awful or it's not, but tweeting it by itself doesn't make it so. It must be an important event to be publicized in such a way. Was it meant to demean anyone?
What a fine bunch of people you are.
This guy went down like a real G. Firing squad? Really? I'ma pussy give me the needle.
Visit my Forums?
Can I sue him AND his state for personal harm damages?
He announced the death sentence being carried out on a murderer. The guy deserved to be killed by the state in the same way that he afforded his victims, but that never happens. If anything, the murderer's body should be put on display with a sign(and internet "tweets") showing the upcoming generations that the same fate shall befall you, should you choose to be a murderer. Where are the bleeding hearts for this asshole's victims and their families?
whether you agree with capital punishment or not, you have to agree that the state should not take its power to kill its own citizens very lightly. even if those citizens are scumbags.
Absolutely. But the message was not light, it was professional and serious in every way.
Just because YOU happen to think of Twitter as a channel of pure entertainment, does not mean it can only be used that way forever. It is a raw channel for information of ANY type.
That's the sign of a good tool, that in the end users are using it in ways the people that built the tool never dreamed of.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
is the word for it.
From the AG of the great democracy, USA, I expect a bit more.
There's also probably a one-line log in a book somewhere saying the execution was authorized. Does that offend you? How long exactly does the message need to be to satisfy you - 141 characters?
History is chock full of very meaningful and profound events summarized into a space short enough for Twitter by the record keepers of the time. Twitter is simple another communications channel, and one easier for the people to monitor than that same log book I mentioned. There's nothing inappropriate about this at all.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
He took it like a man.
20 plus years he stayed alive.
He murdered a bartender and then tried to escape from court and murdered an attorney.
2 inocent (whatever you deffinition of inocent is) people dead and we are worring about a fucking tweat!?
Please don't try to counter argue the point that we are so much more civilized than every other country in the world, you should really see what the U.S. government does under our noses.
He's gone, one less muderer being kept alive with 3 hots and a cot.
NEXT!
I don't see anything wrong with clear communications from government officials. I may disagree with the death penalty, but I appreciate this being announced without Newspeak or other obscure language.
(I do hope he gets in trouble for his invocation of "God" if this is indeed an official government communication.)
Imagine yourself in that position - having to choose whether to be shot or poisoned to death, what would you choose?
I expect many people to choose a bullet. Hopefully with a 30mm GAU-8 Avenger round that are shot from A10 Warthogs.
I suppose the quickest way to go is with a bomb explosion, though it is definitely not 'dignified', with all the little pieces of meat on the walls, floor and the ceiling.
You can't handle the truth.
...or it didn't happen.
So the last real expert on the subject, and his boss, both disagree with you.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
WARNING! This page informs on real world of crime and punishment. "If u can't stand the TWEET, get out of the TWITCHEN" Harry Truman
Inmate electrocuted. For some reason, I've got a craving for some BBQ rite now..
I am the maverick of Slashdot
transparency?
sounds like a fucking emotion update.
Attorney generals status: HAPPY!
My stance on this is you're a penis gobbling kike.
When I read the subject line I immediately thought that the order to "fire" was given via twitter. something like "Im at McDicks... lol shoot the bastard while I order my BigMac."
I see no way to be sad about executing these creeps. As a matter of fact we should first remove all useful organs and body parts and then send the remains to an alligator farm where the meat will be appreciated. One less evil monster in this world makes for a happy moment. Now if we would get a mind set to do the same with burglars and bicycle thieves the world would be a much nicer place.
Yeah most of that is just rubbish. You have clearly never been put under by professionals (as in for operation), in a split second you are gone. And if they put too much in you don't come back.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I guess the NYT is going to have a field trip, knowing the word tweets has been banned..
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
My sister was brutally murdered and I knew from that point on that killing her killer would not make a difference to how I felt. How I still feel 20 years later... Still, bad deeds must be punished. I only wish her killer was killed by bashing his head in and strangling him like he did my sister. If we did that - kill the killer with the same method they used - it might become a deterrent again.
The main reason why capital punishment is not a deterrent is because we sugar-coat it. We put padded language around it. We get offended by a tweet reporting the go-ahead was made. And then we put them to sleep gently. All because our pussy-ass pacifist socialist education system brainwashes us into discarding any sense of honor, integrity, accountability and responsibility.
Executions should be announced with a media bullhorn and the country should stop everything else while its happening. No, we shouldn't broadcast the actual event. But we should acknowledge and witness when it occurs. We need to make our population instinctively aware that execution is a consequence - that there is a consequence for all our actions and transgressions against others.
At least you made your trolling blatant.
While I'm against capital punishment both because it sends innocents to their deaths, and because it's based on vengeance instead of justice, I really don't see an issue with tweeting an execution announcement.
The actions of elected officials are supposed to be completely public, and stored in a form where there's no question as to what they are doing and why. His tweet made both his action and the reasoning behind his action completely clear, and stored it in a format where it remains archived, so it actually does accomplish keeping his electorate informed.
That being said, I do agree that it would have made more sense to type up a full statement on the matter, put it on his website, then tweet a link to that document, but as far as mistakes go, that's a pretty minor one, even if the topic of discussion was anything but minor. Now of course, if he doesn't later post a full document or hold a press conference on the matter, THEN arguments about him avoiding the issue become valid. I'll be very surprised, however, if that's the case.
WTF? This guy works for the people of the State of Utah in an official civic capacity! He's on the taxpayer dole and he's spending his time tweeting religiously-biased shit using public resources! Fifty whole characters of religious bias! Yes I counted them and got more and more pissed at each one!
What if *I* were the Attorney General of Utah, and I twote, "May the Flying Spaghetti Monster grant him the mercy he denied his victims"? I'd catch hell for that! But it would certainly be as valid a tweet as for any other religion. Although 40% of us are agnostic, so still unacceptable! As a taxpaying atheist, I should get my fair share of those 140 characters too!
What channel can I watch the execution on? Or am I too early? What year is this...?
*DrugCheese rants*
...getting fired by email was harsh!
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
Does your heart bleed for the rabid dog that's been put down, too?
I'm not angry at the dog for getting rabies. I don't particularly care how it got rabies. It simply no longer has a place among us, and neither does such a brutal man as Utah put to death.
The rabid dog deserves even more sympathy, in fact- you can probably figure out a dog has rabies before it's done any harm. We cannot (and should not) determine that a man is so ruined as to require putting down before he's done his share of damage.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
That sounds like a bunch of horseshit to me. Do you have any credible source?
Twitter isn't the only form of electronic communication. It is, however, the most asinine and informal. I wouldn't want the news of my upcoming demise originating from the same site responsible for informing millions that Lance Armstrong woke up and is preparing a delicious sandwich.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
Twitter is not a valid form of communication for non-trivial topics. You're should still feel free to post as many "poop is coming out" messages as you'd like though. That's a perfectly valid use.
By my reckoning, the theistic portion was 37% of the tweet, the remaining 63% a simple statement of fact. What would you consider to be your fair share?
Let's say he tweets this in his official capacity:
I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution. BTW 1-800-MATTRESS has all the mattresses you need.
Should another mattress place feel treated fairly just because the majority of the tweet wasn't about mattresses at all? This would be considered corruption.
What about this?
I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution. BTW use 1-800-MATTRESS if U think mattresses exist.
That's still not being fair.
Where are the bleeding hearts for this asshole's victims and their families?
The bleeding hearts have realized that the sentence the man receives does not in any way undo or mitigate the deaths of the victims and doesn't do much for their families. It just adds 1 more to the body count.
It's worse than that. If you've ever seen the judicial system in action it bears little resemblance to it's idealized form as perceived by the public and on television. Now, murder cases often get better treatment in general than most, because of their seriousness, but if you've ever been on a jury in an underprivileged area you'll be quick to realize that perception is all that matters. Logic doesn't matter. Truth doesn't matter. Perception is what matters.
The legal system convicts plenty of people of crimes they did not commit. And, consequently, the legal system kills many people crimes for they did not commit. For those that did commit their crimes, it does very little that will change their behavior and it actually and strangely does some things that encourage a repeat of the same behavior that caused friction with society in the first place. It is superficial and does not examen what caused the conflict between a particular person and society. It stigmatizes, yet it does not understand. It is not, in the broad sense, scientific. It is a relic of traditions and shares many features with religion. Our justice system's punitive model is inherently flawed and a net detriment to society, but like a religious dogma, we as a nation do not question it, improve it. It remains what it was largely unchanged since the founding of this nation.
Thus, we have a public official inured to a system of punishment and discipline treating the message death of another as if it were a message about what he had for lunch. What should our justice system be if not formost punitive? That answer is easy:
Our justice system should be transformative.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Does anyone know Ronnie Lee Gardner's Twitter ID? I can only imagine...
@ronnieleegardner Ow ow ow... ow!
Well, that particular offender will certainly have a low recidivism rate. I've yet to hear of someone committing another violent offense after a successful execution.
I'd be interested in hearing if you have a counter-example that doesn't involve zombies, ghosts or other fictional entities.
I can't say the same about life imprisonment due to escapes, a mistaken release (they do happen, though rarely), killing a guard, killing another inmate, battery of one of the above, etc.
Parole or pardon is a bit different and IMHO not really relevant, as a legally empowered panel or official has decided the person is not a further danger, or should be given a second chance.
Whether or not you feel that capital punishment should be a penalty in some cases, the above effect is pretty undeniable. It's just a question of whether you think we as a society pay too high a cost (moral, social, or even monetary) for executing someone.
Most, including myself, consider the death penalty to be justice.
I agree. And after all, a state without the power of life and death over its citizens isn't really much of a state at all. Only some brain-dead Libertarian could possibly object to capital punishment.
"May God grant him the mercy that I am denying him." Would have been more appropriate.
...and as a cost cutting method, in China, they bill the family for the cost of the bullet. About 30 cents.
I'd rather people receive their "news" directly from the source in 140 character statements of fact, than through 60 minute politically charged, corporate funded rantings.
Twitter isn't the only form of electronic communication. It is, however, the most asinine and informal. I wouldn't want the news of my upcoming demise originating from the same site responsible for informing millions that Lance Armstrong woke up and is preparing a delicious sandwich.' http://latestnewscheck.blogspot.com/2010/06/tel-launches-suns-world-cup-song-from.html
Religious hypocrisy at its very worst. And what happened to your whole separation of church and state thing anyway?
...that he didn't finish the tweet with 'LOL'... :-(
The state killed a guy. That is interesting and important.
How they announce it seems entirely unimportant.
VLC Remote for iPhone and Android
Execution for murder is the upholder of the 2nd amendment. If murderers cannot be executed, citizenship cannot be allowed to keep and bear firearms, since they are unable to take the appropriate utmost responsibility for their misuse of firearms if there is no execution for murder. Either there will be a breakdown of laws or blood revenge will take the place of executions, destroying the nation.
The capital punishment aspect is totally uninteresting for me, it is simply eye for eye, not punishment. Murderers are executed, that is naturally right and cannot be any other way. Anti-executioners just want to abolish the 2nd amendment!
God bless America and God bless the 2nd Amendment!
the awfulness of tweeting the execution of a human being.
As opposed to the awfulness of phoning/emailing/front page headlining the execution of a human being?
It seems fitting that the execution of a killer was announced through the same medium that people announce taking a dump.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
He now tweets he's astonished no one showed outrage at what the murderer did. OK. We're outraged at what the murderer did. But killing a person is killing a person and how Mr. Shurtleff is guilty of murder himself. He's not astonished with himself?
I've come back around to believing these state-sanctioned killings should be televised at prime time. The current system allows those in need to exercise their primal desire for vengeance, while keeping the actual killing mostly hidden from society and easy to ignore.
If state-sanctioned killing is so noble, we should stop treating it like a taboo subject -- let's put it out in the open, right where everyone (children included) will see it. Because it's so noble, remember? It's a good thing.
You think like a ReThuglican Jew